Welcome to the MSRG

About the Group

MSRG is a multi-disciplinary group that facilitates collaboration between archaeologists, historians, geographers and other interested parties dedicated to developing understanding of settlement between the fifth and sixteenth centuries AD.

The Medieval Settlement Research Group (MSRG) was founded in November 1986 from an amalgamation of two well-established organizations, the Moated Sites Research Group and the Medieval Village Research Group. Archaeologists, geographers and historians belonging to the Group aim to use their disciplines co-operatively in order to advance knowledge of medieval settlements and landscapes of all kinds. Although the Group’s interest is concentrated on British and Irish medieval landscapes between the fifth and sixteenth centuries AD, it actively encourages wider chronological and pan-European perspectives.

We now have a more refined understanding of the origins of regional differences in settlement form and patterns of land-use that continue to define the present-day countryside. Alongside these persistent themes, current research agendas increasingly seek to move beyond categorizing medieval settlements to address the social and ideological factors which shaped medieval perceptions of the landscape.

As it looks to the future, the Group actively strives towards a closer integration of field archaeology, local history, standing building recording, place-name study, and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction towards a better understanding of medieval settlements as integrated components of the historic landscape. It is this holistic approach, underpinned by a continually developing battery of methodologies, that will define the Group’s research agenda for the coming 50 years and beyond.

MSRG Principal Aims

Increase public awareness of the subject by spreading information about medieval settlement as widely as possible.

Report on progress in medieval settlement studies through the Group’s annual journal.